ACUSHNET — A 19-year-old rookie firefighter at his first serious fire helped rescue a Coulombe Street woman from her burning home Sunday night.

Once word got out that Adam Hebert, with six months as a call firefighter under his belt, had done such a thing, the Boston and Providence news media descended on him and his fellow firefighters Monday.

Hebert matter-of-factly described the scene when he was among the first to arrive. "I could see smoke. I could see the flames. I saw heavy smoke and the fire coming out the second-floor window."

A candle had likely set fire to a bedroom, fire officials said.

Hebert and fellow firefighter Paul Frysinger, 32, his first cousin, along with firefighter Thomas Farland, quickly put on their breathing gear and laid out a fire hose into the house.

"The skills I learned at the academy and in departmental drills I was able to use," Hebert said. "I was the second guy on the line. He (Frysinger) was on the nozzle and I had his back."

"Using the rescue skills I learned, we were able to locate the victim and get her out."

It was a close call. Frysinger said the two encountered flames halfway up the stairs and had to knock them down to proceed. The fire was too intense for them to search the entire floor, and the victim told them she was alone as they carried her to safety.

With no visibility in the heavy smoke, Frysinger said they called out to the victim to keep calling to them so she could be located.

Chief Kevin Gallagher said that the bathroom door that had been her only protection had been nearly burned through when the victim was found.

Traditionally, Gallagher said, the chief will take rescuers out for a drink to toast their achievement. But in this case, Hebert is going to have to wait a couple of years so he can have that drink legally.